Future of UNRWA Uncertain as Agency Faces $200 Million Deficit

Latest Developments

Determining the Future of UNRWA: Members of the UN General Assembly were presented with four proposals to determine the future direction of UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for the descendants of Palestinian refugees. According to Reuters, the proposals, which followed a strategic UN assessment of the agency, included inaction, leading to UNRWA’s potential collapse; reducing services and a “transfer of some functions to other actors”; creating an executive board to advise UNRWA’s commissioner-general and raise funds; or focusing the agency on protecting the Palestinians’ rights and advocacy for their refugee status while shifting services to be administered by the Palestinian Authority.
UNRWA Facing Deficit: In June, UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini admitted that the agency is facing a $200 million deficit. The United States — formerly the largest donor to UNRWA — and several other nations cut their funding in early 2024 after it was revealed that UNRWA employed active Hamas terrorists, including several who participated in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel. The United States and Sweden remain the only two countries to have completely cut funding to the agency, with President Donald Trump ordering that the funding continue to be withheld.
Terrorists Work for UNRWA: In January 2024, Israel revealed that at least 13 UNRWA employees took part in Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel and later revealed that at least 12 percent of UNRWA employees are affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Findings from an investigation spearheaded by Lazzarini confirmed in August 2024 that at least nine employees participated in the massacre but claimed there was insufficient information about nine others. Several freed Israeli hostages have also reported being held captive by Hamas at UNRWA facilities in Gaza.

FDD Expert Response

“The Trump administration’s decision to cease funding to UNRWA and conduct a wholesale review of U.S. contributions to the UN budget is clearly having a positive impact. UNRWA was established to deal with a temporary refugee crisis over 75 years ago and has since only served to perpetuate and exacerbate the problem while inciting violence and inflaming the conflict. The Trump administration’s reform work at Turtle Bay is critical not only to address the flagrant waste of U.S. tax dollars but also to cut out the anti-American and anti-Western rot that is rampant at the United Nations.” — Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network

“UNRWA reform at this stage would be putting lipstick on a pig. It must be dismantled. UNRWA exists to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee issue rather than to solve it. Any essential services provided by UNRWA should be transferred to non-politicized organizations or local governments, with an ultimate goal of weaning Palestinians off aid.” — David May, Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst